It’s tough on the coaches, they have seven spots to fill and probably 10 guys that are deserving. Tom Thibodeau complained about it Wednesday night (and he is one of the coaches you know actually fills out his own ballot, doesn’t hand it off to an assistant).

But still, people get screwed. Who got it this year? How about three from each conference:

WESTERN CONFERENCE

• Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors. He is the initiator, the guy driving the Golden State offense, he’s scoring 20.9 points a game, dishing out 6.6 assists per game and is shooting 45.1 percent from three while taking nearly seven shots from there a game (he is the best pure shooter in the league). He’s grown his game as defenses have adjusted to him, he can put the rock on the floor and create space. What’s more, he’s made himself a good pick-and-roll defender. He’s led his team to a surprisingly good record and they are a playoff lock. I don’t think you can ask more of a guy.

• Jamal Crawford, Los Angeles Clippers. This is one a lot of fans wanted — the All-Star Game is an exhibition and J-Crossover is flashy and fun to watch. He’s also scoring 16.6 points a game, second best on one of the top teams in the NBA, and he’s the leader of the best bench group in the Association. It would be tough to take him over James Harden, Tony Parker or even Curry but he is playing the best ball of his career and winning and that should be rewarded.

• Serge Ibaka, Oklahoma City Thunder. Ibaka made my list of guys I would have voted on the reserve team. He has developed a dangerous midrange game and is giving the Thunder 14 points a game on 56 percent shooting plus pulling down 8.3 points a game. And that’s not mentioning he’s really best on the defensive end of the floor where he is one of the game’s best help defenders. Ibaka has become a big part of what the Thunder do and some recognition would have been nice, I had him in just ahead of Zach Randolph, but the coaches saw it differently.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

• Paul Pierce, Boston Celtics. The fans voted in Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo as starters but the Celtics leading scorer at 18.9 points per game didn’t make it even as a reserve. More than just the leading scorer, he has kept the Celtics offense going this season and they would be lost without him. Or more lost. Granted, at 35 he’s not quite as spry as he once was but the guy create his own shot in the half court, he’s shooting 36.4 percent from three, he can get to the line, he’s efficient and he’s got a PER of 19. He’s still got it and in my book and he is still an All-Star.

• Brook Lopez, Brooklyn Nets. He has been the best offensive center in the East all season and a catalyst for the Nets transformation this season — when he plays they are a dangerous team. He’s averaging 18.6 points per game shooting 52.1 percent. And he’s grabbing 7.4 rebounds a game, although we can all admit that is not his forte. His defense has improved. He’s got a ridiculous PER of 25.4 — the kind of number that usually means lock All-Star.

• Brandon Jennings, Milwaukee Bucks. Jennings himself knew he likely wasn’t going to make the cut and it’s because it’s a numbers game — Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade were voted in by the fans as starters and it’s hard argue against the amazingly talented Kyrie Irving or Jrue Holiday, who has carried the Sixers in the absence of Andrew Bynum. But if you want to make the case that a guy leading his team to wins should get preference then Jennings deserves a spot as the Bucks are 22-18 and he is averaging 18.7 points and 5.8 assists per game, with a PER of 17.5.

DeMar DeRozan is having one of those seasons for the No. 2 team in the Eastern Conference, the Toronto Raptors. During Thursday night’s win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, 124-110, DeRozan scored 27 points while adding eight rebounds, five assists, and shooting a whopping 13 free throws.

DeRozan also sealed the victory in the final minute with a huge put back dunk.

The Raptors led by 9 points with a minute left as they were inbounding the ball. A long pass from the baseline to a streaking DeMarre Carroll resulted in a blocked layup, but DeRozan was there to clean up the mess.

Here’s what you missed Thursday around the NBA while you were drinking homemade glow-in-the-dark beer with jellyfish genes in it (no, you try it first, I insist)…
1) Don’t play Memphis in a close game, they just find a way to win. Last week, when Mike Conley went down with a back injury and was going to miss six weeks (give or take), we questioned if Memphis could keep their heads above water. They promptly went out and lost to a very good Toronto team.

Since then they have won five in a row, capped by an impressive 88-86 win over Portland Tuesday. Impressive because:

• Memphis is now 12-0 in games that were within 3 points in the final minute. You get in a close game with Memphis, you lose. (Statistically, we know some of that is luck, that there will be some regression to the mean, but that stat has propelled a team has been outscored by nine points this season, one that should be 12-12, to the 16-8 record they have.)

• Memphis trailed Portland 79-68 with less than five minutes to go, and still won.

• Marc Gasol had 36 points and has been an absolute beast since Conley went down, doing whatever it takes to win.

• Toney Douglas — a guy the Grizzlies just picked up off the street this week, basically — comes in and is clutch down the stretch for them, including hitting the game-winning free throws with 0.5 seconds left (Damian Lillard tried to argue the call, to no avail).

The schedule gets tough for Memphis the next couple of weeks — Golden State, home-and-home with Cleveland, then Boston and Utah looming not long after — but do not doubt the Grizzlies. No team is as resilient as this bunch.

2) Bulls prove Spurs aren’t perfect on the road. It was bound to happen, the San Antonio Spurs were 13-0 on the road, they were going to stumble at some point. That point turned out to be Thursday night in Chicago, where the Spurs came out of the gate like they went out and had a big pregame meal of Lou Malnati’s pizza — 32 points on 30.6 percent shooting in the first half for San Antonio. The Spurs didn’t defend poorly, for example Kawhi Leonard held Jimmy Butler to no first-half points — in fact, midway through the first quarter Taj Gibson and Robin Lopez had scored almost all the Bulls’ buckets — but the San Antonio offense was dreadful. Throw a little credit to the Chicago defense if you want, but this was more San Antonio stumbling than a Chicago return to the Thibodeau era.

The Bulls were up 12 at the half and were able to hang on despite a strong second 24 minutes from Leonard (17 of his 24 came in the second half) and get the win. Dwyane Wade had 20 points and hit a couple of key buckets late to stabilize Chicago. For a Bulls team that is going to be in a playoff battle all season — they are the seven seed right now, one game ahead of the Pacers in ninth — these kinds of wins at home can prove huge.

3) What is it with Minnesota and second half? On the road, the Minnesota Timberwolves had played the Toronto Raptors even for the first 24 minutes — it was 59-59 at the half. And yet, there was a sense of dread for Timberwolves fans because all season their young team has just come apart in the third quarter — and then Toronto opened the second half on an 11-2 run. Minnesota, to their credit, crawls back into it, but midway through the fourth the Raptors go on a 17-4 run sparked by Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, and the Raptors pull away for the 124-110 win. The Timberwolves lost another game because they can’t defend well.

Minnesota shows flashes of the kind of brilliance that has everyone thinking they might be a contender in a few years. But we all expected too much too soon from this group. Those impressive stretches are followed by ones where they play like a young team, they don’t defend well, and they throw those good efforts away. Not that they were going to beat a good Toronto team on the road, but the Timberwolves can be frustrating to watch. Patience is hard, and Minnesota fans are being asked to show a lot of it. We can debate if it’s time to bring Ricky Rubio off the bench and let Kris Dunn sink or swim, but that’s not the core problem. Ultimately, the Timberwolves are young and playing like it. They don’t know how and aren’t putting in the effort to defend well yet. Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine, they can be the core of a contender eventually, but there is a lot of learning to do along the way. Tom Thibodeau can teach them. But it’s going to require patience.